Easter's Gift

A good friend of mine CR, gave me these fragrant smelling hyacinths last night..I love giving and receiving these as they are a little bit different and fill my home with a sweet perfume.

It had me thinking about how this gift of flowers was out of love, generosity and care and will remind me of the warm fellowship I had last night.

Today, being Easter Sunday, I'm reflecting on the gift of our risen Christ.  It's today that we commemorate that He has given those who believe eternal life.  This gift was preceded by Christ's death on the cross.  As my minister had said in the sermon on Easter Friday morning, Jesus's death was not without brutality....the ridicule He experienced, the torture and pain He endured, His blood that was shed...but the Bible doesn't focus on this in great detail....it focuses on why Jesus came.  

Sometimes I still think I do not quite fathom what Jesus endured.  I was sitting in church on Friday wondering what it would have been like to witness His death.  And how on earth any person could have stood there, watched and cheered anyone's death on a cross on.  We have the sweetness of his saving grace to be thankful for, but to appreciate how sweet God's grace is I think I need to truly understand the depth of Jesus sacrificing His life for me.  His gift to us was not from warm fellowship or enjoyment, but it was out of love, a depth of love that I think no one can fathom.

'But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.'

Romans 3:21-25

'Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.'

Romans 4:8

Thanks and praise be to God for His wonderful gift of salvation, the gift of great love for those who believe.